Our employees lead the way on Diversity and Inclusion

For Scentre Group to continue to be the place where talent thrives, it is important we reflect the diversity of the communities in which we operate. We are creating a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone feels safe to bring their whole selves to work.

Diversity means valuing the contribution of people with different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. Inclusion means embracing people’s differences. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) is endorsed by our CEO and Executive Committee.

Seven working groups across the business are sponsored by individual executive leaders, backed-up by strong strategic commitments and governed by our D&I Council. Our working groups are employee-led and our strategy is implemented through the actions of our people working across functions, teams and locations. In 2018, we embedded leadership accountability for creating an inclusive culture by establishing KPI measures for all senior and executive leader roles.

The areas of focus are LGBTI, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Domestic and Family Violence, Gender Representation and the Reconciliation Action Plan for indigenous employment and equality.

We extended our working groups in 2018. Our Cultural Capability working group aims to identify and remove barriers to inclusion and advancement for people from different cultural backgrounds so that they can perform to their fullest potential.

The All Abilities working group seeks to identify barriers to employment at Scentre Group for people with disabilities and identifying ways we can ensure our living centres are accessible to those with disabilities who shop with us.

Our Inclusive Management Program trains people managers on D&I, focussing on the case for diversity and inclusio, our flexible work practices, the impact of unconscious bias and psychological safety on people decisions. The program equips our people with skills to hold inclusive people conversations across the whole employee lifecycle.

While we’ve been driving accountability from the top, we’ve been focussed on driving ownership from our people. Two years ago, we set out to empower our people to own and drive our D&I agenda. In 2018, we introduced an employee recognition award for inclusion as part of our company-wide recognition program.

We’ve seen the barometer for employee engagement and leadership in our D&I agenda shift considerably. Through storytelling, many brave employees shared their personal experiences to help educate and extend the work of our D&I areas. We’re incredibly proud of these people, and of our workplace culture, which instils confidence and trust to enable our people to share their stories with their peers and demonstrate the relevance of our D&I strategy.